The IRS activated its FATCA Registration Portal on August 19 to permit foreign financial institutions ("FFIs") to start registering under FATCA and to agree to the terms of an FFI Agreement with the IRS. The FATCA Registration Portal can be accessed at www.irs.gov/fatca. As indicated in Notice 2013-43, FFIs can now set up an account through the Portal and add or modify registration information. Information entered into the system prior to January 1, 2014, even if submitted as final, will not be regarded as a final submission but will merely be stored on the website. On or after January 1, 2014

The MSRB issued a request for comments regarding a proposed rule change to consolidate Rules A-12, A-14, A-15, and G-40 ("Electronic Mail Contacts") into a single rule. The existing rules outline the requirements to and process by which municipal dealers, brokers, dealers, and regulated entities register with the MSRB. The proposed rule consolidation would require additional contact information, firm identification information and data concerning the scope of dealer activities. Comments should be submitted no later than September 20, 2013. See: MSRB Notice 2013-19.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a paper evaluating the capital planning process at large bank holding companies. The agency found that while the process has improved, more work needs to be done to enhance practices for assessing the capital necessary to withstand stressful economic and financial conditions. The paper noted various aspects that need the most improvement, including: accounting risks for specific business activities, methods of projecting the effect of certain stresses on capital needs, and governance of the capital-planning process. See: Capital

The IRS has recently issued for comments a draft Form 8966 ("FATCA Report") that will be used by foreign financial institutions ("FFIs") and certain withholding agents to report information with respect to financial accounts held by non-participating FFIs, passive non-financial foreign entities and specified U.S. persons. No instructions were published with the draft form and the IRS cautioned against reliance on draft forms before they are finalized. See: Draft FATCA Report.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a final rule establishing annual assessment fees for its supervision and regulation of large financial companies. The final rule implements Section 318 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which directs the Federal Reserve to collect fees equal to the total estimated expenses necessary to carry out supervisory and regulatory responsibilities for bank holding companies and saving and loan holding companies with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and designated nonbank financial companies supervised by the Federal Reserve.The discussion